NEW YORK CITY, January 24 — With the weather snowy and wet, the streets icy and slippery, a forum “Ferguson: Causes, Events, What Happens Now?” took place in the sanctuary of our church. Ten minutes before the beginning of the forum, it appeared that almost nobody would show up, but soon there were almost 100 people sitting in the pews awaiting the start of the forum.
Following the official welcome to the church, a worker sang a song that named and honored many victims of racist police murders. There was tremendous applause for the words and the beauty of the song.
The forum began with introductions of the five speakers:  a representative of the New York Civil Liberties Union, a Baptist minister, a mother whose daughter had died in police custody, and two young fighters who went to Ferguson to take part in the struggle. Questions followed.
Ferguson has become a symbol for fighting back militantly against a system which is unequal, corrupt, and racist. Each of the speakers, in their own way, spoke to that. Although there were differences, none of the speakers disagreed about the nature of the system — the main disagreement was on how to fight back.
The lawyer from the NYCLU spoke most forcefully about the fact that the system is not even set up to help us, and that there are many laws that hamstring struggles through the courts. She agreed with direct action on the street, which she said could then be brought to court. She wanted to see equal implementation of laws and improved laws. She is working with others to gain that.
The next speaker briefed the audience on his trip to Ferguson. He started off his talk with a chant for everybody in the church to recite. “Ferguson means fight back!” “Racism means fight back!” He then spoke to the need for mass struggle on a militant level. He called for more marches, demonstrations, etc. He pointed out that this was the lesson of Ferguson. He also spoke about local struggles to improve people’s living conditions against racist landlords and other oppressors and he insisted that they should be carried out the Ferguson way.
The minister spoke next. He had the same feelings about the terrible, oppressive racism in Ferguson and in different parts of the U.S., but said he still believed in the power of prayer. However, workers can’t pray racism away.
A young student, a member of the Progressive Labor Party who had been arrested in Ferguson at a protest, spoke about the need to make a communist revolution in order to end racism all over the world. He said the many injustices we live under cannot be destroyed until all the aspects of the system are destroyed. This means destroying capitalism.
The last speaker was Anita Neal, whose daughter had been killed by the callous racist system. She brought the people to their feet — between her anger and her tears.
Questions from the audience allowed the speakers to go more deeply into each of their philosophical differences. Despite their differences, they all agreed to the need to stand up and fight evil face on. At the end of the forum people remained to talk to each other. Quite a few went out together to eat and talk some more. The afternoon was a success for community involvement. Plans are being laid to involve the church and community more in the struggle against the racist injustice of capitalism.

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BROOKLYN, NY, February 22 — This weekend our club organized a community forum on racism, with more than 40 people attending, including members and guests. There were several topics discussed.
Racist Exploitation and Deportations
A young comrade discussed this topic, arguing that Obama’s new immigration law is a dangerous trap for the majority of immigrants because of the increased controls as a result of “registering.” In addition, immigrant youth will be vulnerable to future wars because they’ll be recruited to fight imperialist wars.
Racism is a tool to intensify capitalist exploitation of the whole working class for use as cheap labor by dividing some groups of workers against others, and allows the bosses to both control the workers and gain “super profits.” Many in the audience were asking, how can we trust this president, who has already deported more than two million immigrants? We cannot. The only people to have confidence in are workers worldwide.
Racism and Police Brutality
Another comrade spoke about this issue and called out the names of all those murdered by the police: Eric Garner, Kimani Gray, Kyam Livingston, Shantel Davis, Michael Brown, and so many more. Names were read of victims from New York, Ferguson, Missouri, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and more.
Racism in the form of police brutality means the jailing of more than two million workers and youth here in the U.S. for slave labor, 70 percent of which are Black and Latin, who have to work for private companies at the miserable wages of $0.08 an hour.
Racism – The Struggle Against Imperialist War and Imperialism
For this topic we discussed the motives and justifications used by the biggest capitalists — the imperialists — to expand their wars to control land and wealth, especially oil in the Middle East. The imperialists impose their wars to terrorize and control the world. Iraq was mentioned as an example, which the U.S. destroyed using the lie it possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Imperialist powers build and sell modern weapons to other countries, like the thousands of chemical weapons Iraq legally purchased from the U.S. during the 1980s. Then the imperialists invade these countries, destroying them so that later their own companies “rebuild” them in exchange for long-term debt.
We also discussed Cuba, which suffered an economic blockade for more than 50 years. Now Cuba is being re-engaged by the U.S. as part of a fake “peace” plan and hopes Cuba can be used as a backyard in future wars, much as how the U.S. has always viewed Latin America as its backyard since the Monroe Doctrine in the 1820s.
There were some comments from the audience, which illustrated racism in the wages they received, discrimination, and exploitation at work. Some detailed kidnappings and abuses when they came into this country, and the miserable housing conditions they confront as they fight eviction efforts. We confirm what we read in CHALLENGE, that Black and Latin families experience racism in all its forms: lower wages and benefits — lousy health care, housing and education — twice the rate of unemployment and wholesale murders at the hands of racist police.
After the forum, we held a small demonstration and chanted militant slogans. We distributed CHALLENGE, and people greeted us as we went by. Everything was well organized, and with the support and presence of experienced Party members, we had a successful forum and demonstration. Now, we are planning our next event before May Day, because people want to know what’s going on with ISIS, France, China, Cuba, and Ukraine.

Brooklyn, February 21 — “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now!”
“No justice, no peace! No racist police!”
 “We want justice for Kyam Livingston killed in a prison cell.”
And so the chants continue now for 18 months. Kyam Livingston’s mother, along with many church members, teachers, union members, activists and PL’ers, have stood strong fighting for justice. Kyam was left to die in a holding cell in Central Booking in Brooklyn on July 21, 2013. As the family continues its struggle, Kyam’s mother has forged ties with the families of other victims of racist police murder. PL’s strategy and tactics have helped lead this fightback. We will not stand aside under any circumstances whatsoever. The Justice for Kyam Committee speaks against systemic racism of the criminal justice system.
We seek change the whole system. We don’t rely on elected officials or politicians or others in high places. Our power is generated by the activities of working people enraged by the ongoing murders from Ferguson to Staten Island to Flatbush. When we chant “Fight like Ferguson,” we salute the leadership given by the mainly young Black workers of Ferguson. They refused to back down in the face of a highly militarized police terror campaign instituted to stop them from the murder of Mike Brown.
For 18 months, whether at Central Booking or in front of racist liar District Attorney Ken Thompson’s office, we have stood through snow, rain and heat asking simple questions. Still no answers. We have confronted Ken Thompson’s office, but still no answers. We have confronted Central Booking as they laugh at death through their windows. We have the names and we have the tapes of the murder.  We will continue to fight. 
One thing is very clear. The only solution is communist revolution and only through the Progressive Labor Party can we smash a system that doesn’t deserve to exist, and build a system for all working class people. 
One theme becoming more apparent with Kyam’s mother’s leadership is she does not want to see this happen ever again to other workers’ children and she will stand out here fighting until this system is gone and begins anew. We in the Progressive Labor Party stand with her. Join us on the 21st of every month in solidarity, as the working class stands strong.

Because of the recent outbreak of measles among some children who visited Disneyland, the mass media have focused on parents who are afraid to have their children vaccinated. Measles can kill, but many parents have been fooled by widespread disinformation that measles vaccinations may lead to autism. This is a blatant lie. No one knows what causes autism, but we have voluminous proof that vaccines do not.
The lie was raised to prominence by Andrew Wakefield, a British surgeon who profited hugely by submitting a fraudulent paper in 1998 to the leading medical journal Lancet. Beforehand he had been hired by lawyers trying to sue vaccine companies to prove their case, and the journal paper was the result. His paper reviews the cases of 12 children, claiming that they all developed autism within two weeks of receiving the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine. It was later shown, however, that some of these children had signs of autism prior to the vaccinations and others never had autism. Wakefield’s medical license was subsequently revoked.
Every study since then has rejected Wakefield’s attribution of autism to the vaccine, any vaccine. But his murderous lie lives on through self-serving celebrities like Jenny McCarthy, the Playboy model, who refuses to vaccinate her children. Wakefield himself has built a following in his adopted home of Texas, where he continues to claim he is the victim of government collusion with vaccine manufacturers. One doesn’t have to support either government or vaccine makers to conclude that Wakefield is responsible for crimes against the working class.
When unvaccinated children catch the measles, or other potentially deadly contagious diseases, they expose other children. When too few children in a community (less than 90 percent) have been vaccinated, all are at risk of epidemics, even those who have been vaccinated. Measles was once virtually eradicated in the U.S. and Europe, even if not everywhere in the world, due solely to the vaccine. Of every thousand children who contract measles, one or two will die. But no children will develop autism from the vaccine.
Laws passed by pandering and ignorant politicians in many places allow vaccination exemptions for parents on the grounds of religious or simply “personal” beliefs. But what if someone has a “personal” belief that it’s all right to steal?  Stealing, though enforced by capitalist conditions, is still a violation of working-class morality. And incidentally it’s against the law, unless committed by huge banks and corporations. The stunning hypocrisy of vaccine exemptions in turn supports the spread of anti-scientific mysticism and superstition — useful tools for the reigning capitalist class to keep workers divided and subjugated.
Most parents who fail to vaccinate their children out of fear are simply trying to protect them. But it’s not the motivation that counts; it’s the effect. Despite opposition by the American Pediatric Society, some pediatricians refuse to accept children as patients whose parents won’t have them vaccinated, on the grounds that exposure to unvaccinated children raises the disease risk for their other patients. Likewise, some school districts refuse to allow children to attend school until they are vaccinated. Both of these measures represent a scattered approach that does not solve the problem for the children or their parents.
Only a centrally planned cooperative system, based on the best that science can offer — i.e., communism — will be capable of stemming the effects of mysticism and disinformation and be able to protect children as well as adults. Communism is a system that will encourage families, friends, and neighbors to help each other with childcare and other needs. Communism raises science to a premium while eradicating mysticism and superstition. Under communist leadership, with the Progressive Labor Party having grown to include millions of workers, the working class will see to it that all parents have the wherewithal to feed, clothe, and shelter their children, and to be guided only by science rather than be confused by superstition.

New York CITY, February 18 — “A Little Cold, A Little Pain, That Won’t Stop This Justice Train!” That was the chant today as about 150 workers and professionals held a very spirited picket line on the coldest day of the year, in support of the 56 attorneys, paralegals and secretaries who are on strike at Mobilization For Youth (MFY) Legal Services. They are represented by the Legal Services Staff Association (LSSA)/UAW Local 2320. After almost four weeks on strike in record-breaking cold weather, on February 24, MFY’s union signed a new contract with their bosses.
The strikers demanded increased staffing with affirmative action to reduce workloads and better reflect the they serve, and family leave and pay-equity for the lowest-paid workers.
The millionaire Wall Street lawyers who sit on the Board had basically told the strikers, “We can afford to meet your demands. We just don’t think it‘s worth it!”  The bosses also brought in scabs, a temp clerical worker and some contract attorneys.
What they don’t think is “worth it” is quality legal help for the poor, mostly Black, Latin, immigrant and women workers who need help with housing and family court, bankruptcy, benefits for the elderly and many other issues. They want to turn MFY and all legal services for the poor into a McDonald’s type operation, cheap and fast, and a workforce with a huge turnover.
PLP salutes the MFY strikers. Their militancy and solidarity during the bitter cold weather is a model for all workers to follow! But the struggle has only begun. Under capitalism, the living conditions of those MFY serves will only worsen and become more desperate. We call on the MFY strikers to take it to the next level and join PLP!